Racial Equity

Celebrating Freedom, Unity and Community!

Another Juneteenth program brought to you by African Heritage, Inc. Visit the Wakanda Marketplace and and enjoy music, dancing, food, parade, exhibits, and much more! Be sure to visit the ESTHER booth when you come.

“The Gift of Our Wounds” authors Pardeep Singh Kaleka, a Sikh, and Arno Michaelis, a former white supremacist, share a message of forgiveness and compassion while addressing a host of social issues, including violence, racism, sexism, homophobia, religious intolerance, Holocaust remembrance and genocide prevention.

The co-authors are also co-founders of Serve2Unite. They will speak about how to understand incidents of hate and how to intervene when encountering hateful acts or incidents. Kaleka, who lost his father Satwant Singh Kaleka in the August 5th, 2012 Sikh Temple shooting in Oak Creek, and Michaelis, a former white supremacist who helped to start a gang back in the late 1980s that produced the August 5th shooter, founded Serve2Unite in 2013 to share their message of forgiveness after hate.

The March program of the Appleton League of Women Voters will provide opportunities to explore the topic of stereotypes with fellow LWV members and guests. Karen Nelson, Diversity Coordinator for the City of Appleton, will share presentation duties with Irene Strohbeen, LWV VP for Programs. Members of Celebrate Diversity Fox Cities will also participate.

The presentations and discussion will explore the harmful impact of even positive stereotypes, and then examine definitions of commonly-used diversity terms before we discuss in smaller groups.

The goal is for each person attending to identify things we can do as individuals to overcome stereotypes and break down barriers to inclusion.

Copper Rock is providing the venue at no charge, so please buy food and beverages to enjoy throughout the meeting! Come early if you want to order food—the program will begin promptly at 5:30.

The State of Affairs: What is Black Liberation in 2019?

Keynote speaker: Funmilola Fagbamila, Nigerian American scholar, activist, playwright and artist. Professor of Pan African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. A founding member of the Black Lives Matter movement, Professor Fagbamila will speak and engage the community in conversations on Black Liberation.

Mr. I’m Possible, Keith Brown, will speak about Black history and engage Professor Fagbamila in a conversation about the state of Black America.

In addition to the speakers, the event will feature a musical performance by the Milwaukee-based OnFyah Dance Group and a soul food reception.

This presentation by Sean Wilson, Smart Justice Statewide Organizer for the ACLU of Wisconsin, describes the ACLU of Wisconsin’s unprecedented multi-year effort to reduce Wisconsin’s jail and prison populations by 50 percent and to eliminate racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

“Wisconsin locks up more African-American males than any other state in the country, and our state government invests more money into prisons than it does the entire University of Wisconsin System.” -Sean Wilson